Deputy Managing Director of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG), Sheila Azuntaba, says the bank plans to expand its pilot financial inclusion initiative for persons with disabilities across the country, stressing the need to move PWD support beyond grants towards sustainable access to finance.

Ms Azuntaba made the remarks on the sidelines of CBG’s Disability Conference at the Du Bois Centre, Cantonments, on Friday, September 11.

She described the event as one that was particularly important to CBG, saying the bank considered financial inclusion a basic human right that should extend to persons living with disabilities.

“Today’s event is actually one of the events that’s very dear to our hearts,” she said.

According to Ms Azuntaba, the initiative was developed from CBG’s recognition that financial inclusion must reach people who lack access to basic financial services and financial literacy, both in Accra and across the country.

She said persons with disabilities had frequently been overlooked in financial services and were sometimes treated primarily as recipients of charity, despite the entrepreneurial potential within the community.

“Our PWDs in this country often [are] ignored, thinking they are charity cases, but yet they have such great entrepreneurs amongst themselves,” she said.

Ms Azuntaba said CBG’s approach was to equip PWD entrepreneurs with practical financial knowledge alongside access to credit.

The programme includes basic financial literacy, bookkeeping and an understanding of credits and debits, which she said would help beneficiaries manage their businesses and make more informed financial decisions.

She said the bank wanted to recognise persons with disabilities as active participants in the economy and ensure they could access appropriate financial products.

The initiative therefore seeks to address both the knowledge gap and the financing constraints that can limit the growth of PWD-owned enterprises.

Ms Azuntaba stressed that the facilities being provided under the programme were loans rather than grants.

She said CBG's responsibility to underserved communities should go beyond one-off assistance and create sustainable opportunities for beneficiaries to participate in the formal financial system.

“Financial inclusion needs to transcend grants in this country,” she said.

The facilities have been structured with interest rates lower than average market rates, giving beneficiaries access to comparatively affordable capital.

Ms Azuntaba said the concessionary pricing was intended to give entrepreneurs an opportunity to work with the funds, develop their businesses and demonstrate their ability to manage credit.

The objective is not simply to provide immediate financial relief, but to create a sustainable relationship between PWD entrepreneurs and the formal financial sector.

A significant part of CBG’s longer-term vision is to transform the initiative into a revolving line of credit.

Ms Azuntaba said the current programme was intended to serve as the bank’s blueprint and foundational product for wider PWD financing.

“What we promise with this is that it becomes a revolving line of credit for these persons living with disabilities,” she said.

A revolving structure could enable repaid funds to be made available to additional beneficiaries, allowing the initiative to reach more entrepreneurs without relying solely on new injections of capital.

She described this as part of the bank’s broader effort to make the intervention sustainable.

Although the current programme is a pilot, Ms Azuntaba said CBG hoped to develop and roll it out across the country.

“This is our blueprint and our foundational product,” she said.

“We are hoping to roll this across the entire country to ensure that we leave no one behind.”

The proposed expansion would allow PWD entrepreneurs outside Accra to benefit from the programme and strengthen their engagement with CBG’s branch network.

Ms Azuntaba said the bank wanted persons living with disabilities to be able to access financial guidance from any CBG branch, regardless of where they lived.

The DMD said CBG wanted its bankers to provide more than transactional services to PWD customers.

Under the longer-term vision, persons with disabilities should be able to walk into a CBG branch, explain their needs and receive guidance towards financial products that suit their individual circumstances.

“We are hoping to develop this further, even though this is a pilot solution, to ensure that everybody across this country living with disabilities can walk into any of our branches, speak to any of our bankers and be assured that you have a listening ear,” she said.

She said the bank intended to provide customers with someone who could guide them towards an appropriate product and support them throughout their relationship with CBG.

Rather than treating PWDs primarily as beneficiaries of assistance, the bank wants to position them as entrepreneurs, customers and potential borrowers capable of building sustainable enterprises.

That distinction is central to the decision to provide loans rather than grants.

By entering formal credit relationships, beneficiaries can build experience with financial institutions while gaining access to capital for their businesses.

For CBG, responsible repayment would also demonstrate the viability of extending formal credit to a broader pool of PWD-owned enterprises.

Ms Azuntaba tied the initiative to CBG’s slogan of “leaving no one behind”, saying the bank intended to give practical meaning to the commitment.

“One of our slogans at CBG is that we are truly leaving no one behind, and when we said it, we meant it,” she said.

She said the bank would continue developing the pilot with the objective of ensuring that persons with disabilities across Ghana could access appropriate financial services.

The commitment goes beyond credit, encompassing financial literacy, bookkeeping, customer guidance and the development of products suited to individual needs.

For PWD entrepreneurs, access to affordable credit can provide capital to strengthen existing businesses, while financial literacy and bookkeeping skills can improve their ability to manage those enterprises.

For CBG, the revolving credit concept offers the prospect of creating a financing mechanism that can serve successive groups of entrepreneurs.

However, the success of the model will depend on the ability of beneficiaries to use the facilities productively and repay responsibly, as well as CBG’s capacity to maintain appropriate support as the programme expands.

Ms Azuntaba said CBG was prepared to remain engaged with beneficiaries throughout the process.

She emphasised that customers should know that the bank would provide a listening ear and help them identify financial products that fit their specific needs.